Grow

May is National Arthritis Awareness Month, so let’s celebrate by looking at ways to keep vegetable gardeners gardening in spite of arthritic hands and knees. Here are ways to garden smarter with adaptive tools and easier techniques.

Whether you are in the sunny South and already harvesting your brassicas,or in the northern climes where the early spring harbingers are just popping after the last snow--it is spring!What's going on in your garden?

Today I got a hankering for hot cross buns, which I have not made in quite awhile--it is that time of year that we see them for sale. Well, the recipe I use is an old one, from my first book Cooking with Herbs co-authored with Carolyn Dille. The ingredient that makes these buns unique is fresh bay leaves. Really, you will have to try them; I have made a few updates in the recipe which you can read below.

One of the special features in the Irish National Botanic Gardens in Dublin is an accurate recreation of a Viking house dating from the ninth and tenth centuries. Here’s what to plant if you’d like to garden like a Viking.

I enjoy bitter--bitter herbs, bitter foods and bitters, the magic digestive elixirs. They are spring tonics and dandelions are one of my favorites--I've been harvesting the leaves, flowers and roots since they first emerged and using them in soups, sauces, egg dishes, with pasta and grains and stuffing them into quesadillas and enchiladas. Get out there and harvest some goodness for your health and well being!

I recently received a copy of Beyond Rosemary, Basil and Thyme: Unusual, Interesting and Uncommon Herbs to Enjoy from author Theresa Mieseler; it is hot off the presses. This book contains some of the herbs that you might not grow--or even know about--that are worth investigating.

In our recent wild weeds class, we made a soup, salsa verde and salad. Here is a recipe for a soup featuring wild edibles and seasonal greens, a short video and links to salsa verde and green goodness soup. Happy foraging!

Just finished teaching a folk school class on Wild Weeds and Seasonal Greens at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. We foraged for weeds and combined them with some seasonal herbs and greens to make tasty edibles: Spring Greens Soup, Salsa Verde and Salad of Wild Weeds, Seasonal Herbs and Salad Greens.

The new Pumpkin Habanero pepper, from the Exotic Pepper Project at Rutgers University, looks like a small pumpkin, has a citrusy taste and jalapeno-like heat. Here’s how to get your hands on the seeds.

If you like to grow unusual peppers, you’ll need to start from seed. Hundreds of pepper varieties are available to gardeners who take time to plant seeds, instead of the buying seedlings available at garden centers. Here’s how to get started.

Slow Food’s annual Plant a Seed campaign is your chance to make a difference in the wonderful world of vegetable growing. When you plant this year’s seed kit, you’ll help ensure the survival of six plants facing extinction.

The National Garden Bureau decided to name pumpkins as its edible plant for 2019. There's plenty to celebrate about these beautiful, delicious and nutritious fruits. Plan now to harvest tiny orange pumpkins, ghostly white ones or those that are fit for a princess.

I've been thinking a lot about seeds lately due to the fact that I have a pile of seed catalogs sitting here awaiting perusal. I also recently finished reading "From Our Seeds & Their Keepers" by Bevin Cohen, which has definitely inspired me to start saving more seed than I do.

Is vegetable gardening more of an art than a science? In his new book, Matt Mattus uses his experience as a visual designer, artist, horticulturist and futurist to help uncover the answer to that question.

This is the time of year when we want to nestle in and stay at home and eat warming comfort foods. At our house we eat lots of soups and stews, beans and rice, grains and pasta. this pasta sauce first appeared in Cooking with Herbs in 1981! It has been prepared countless times and with many variations and still remains a family favorite.

Yesterday, I went for my annual trek to see the holiday exhibit at the USBG. Fortunately for me and the many other visitors, the Botanic Garden has not been shut down due to government closures. Every time I go to the USBG, I am so glad that I went and am thankful that we have such a marvelous collection of botanical specimens right here in Washington, D.C. Visitors from around the world marveled right along with me at the variety of plants and the seasonal train exhibit. Read all about it...

Recently, at my daughter Lucie's wedding instead of a wedding cake, we had a dessert table. Lucie and Matt decided to have a selection of some favorite desserts, which our friend and caterer Anna Saint John created. Since I had a number of requests for recipes, I am posting or linking them here.